Materials Researcher Measures Success by Enacting Change in Government Policy
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Materials Researcher Measures Success by Enacting Change in Government Policy Interview with Merrilea J. Mayo, Government–University–Industry Research Roundtable The work of a materials researcher is inherently multidisciplinary. As people, materials researchers are also an uncommonly multidimensional lot. If someone leaves the research dimension for an “alternative” one, the research community can quickly try to make them believe that leaving the ivory tower is equivalent to selling out. For Merrilea J. Mayo, “selling out” of research was “buying into” a world where impact is not measured in papers, citations, or patents, but instead in affecting the larger picture of how to make the U.S. government–university–industry enterprise work more effectively. For the past six years, Mayo has been at the helm of the Government– University–Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR), making an impact on how research is funded and conducted in ways most researchers have not considered. —Julie A. Nucci, interviewer What is the history and mission of the Government–University–Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR)? The organization was founded in the early 1980s as a result of a national report that said university and government needed to work in a collaborative manner to solve problems resulting from the government regulation of university research. For example, professors used to have to spend their grant money by the end of the fiscal year, just like the government did. It was a nightmare trying to support students. Now, professors are allowed to carry over money from one year to the next, ensuring continuity of their work and of student support. That difference is the result of GUIRR and one of its 80000 first big experiments, the Federal Demon stration 70000 Partnership (FDP). The FDP 60000 operates to this day and is still the undisputed champion in 50000 the fight against bureaucratic accretion. GUIRR quickly 40000 expanded to include industry participation. The senior-most 30000 leaders of all three sectors now 20000 work together on issues that affect the research enterprise.
that is usually yes. As a very dramatic example, we took on deemed exports last year. This is a series of reinterpretations of existing regulations that would have, for example, required foreign students on all U.S. university campuses to be “badged and segregated.” Now, that didn’t happen. But the reason it didn’t happen was in part because we and some of our sister units here actively engaged in conversations with the Commerce Department and the Defense Department on why this was not a good idea. Our ability to have conversations directly with the high-level federal officials involved is very helpful. Our private effort was complementary to the much more public efforts of the Association of American Universities and the Council on Government Relations. It took a combination of private dialogue (to create mutual understanding) and public pressure (to give federal officials political cover) to undo the mess that the U.S. was about to create. What do yo
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